Apple OKs 'Skinemax'

Published at 6:34 AM PDT on Aug 15, 2011

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Is allowing a Cinemax application on Apple's iOS a violation of its anti-porn policy? To some, HBO's sister channel Cinemax is known as "Skin-emax," a cable channel with plenty of late-night, softcore skin flicks, but Apple has approved the Max Go iPad app and has it available on iTunes.

Apparently several male bloggers are saying that Cinemax is a gratuitous nudity fest, with such titles as "The Hills Have Thighs" and "Bikini Jones and the Temple of Eros," according to GigaOm. Apple and Steve Jobs have been notorious hardliners about porn, including saying no to a Playboy app, to keep the iOS family-friendly. But the language in Apple's anti-porn policy seems contradictory to much of Cinemax's late-night programming:

"Apps containing pornographic material, defined by Webster's Dictionary as 'explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings', will be rejected," reads one section of Apple's App Store Review Guidelines.

"Apps that contain user generated content that is frequently pornographic (ex 'Chat Roulette' apps) will be rejected," reads the line right below it.

In the end, Apple can't make sure that every cable channel with an iOS app has no objectionable content. After all, bloggers took umbrage at Cinemax's app, but didn't make as much hay about HBO's similar programming, with such titles as "Busty Cops and the Jewel of Denial" and "Alien Sex Files 3."